Showcasing the Renaissance

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Gabriele Neher is seduced by the V&A’s new Renaissance & Medieval Galleries

The opening of the new Renaissance & Medieval Galleries of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London met with wide critical acclaim. As part of the Museum’s FuturePlan Phase I, the transformation of the East Wing centres on a sequence of ten interlocking galleries, housing around 1800 objects. Many of the objects displayed in the new galleries have been in storage for decades, some have never been on display before, and others may have been exhibited before, but now appear in a different light.

In fact, ‘light’ is a key theme for the galleries, with the airy and spacious courtyard at the centre of the wing setting the tone for a concourse of the rooms. The designers, McInnes Usher McKnight Architects, have succeeded in making spaces that permit the maximum amount of light into the galleries. The curators have used this visibility to design displays that often surprise, and are always visually stunning. The journey round the galleries starts with the pièce de resistance, the Renaissance courtyard with its large-scale sculptural pieces, including a fountain. It showcases sculptures that would once have graced the loggia of a Florentine palace or the archway of a Venetian confraternity building. Most visitors enter through the courtyard, which sets the tone for the rest of the visit. Visitors can wander amongst the objects, viewing them from below, or see them from above by going up to the ‘balconies’ on the upper level of the galleries. The balconies offer vantage points for visitors who have climbed up, while those who have stayed at ground level gain a sense of scale. Wherever one stands, the spatial arrangement of the galleries is such that there is a varied and multilayered sense of viewpoints and comparisons. The courtyard is clearly designed to evoke the feeling of an outdoor setting. When the visitor enters more fully into the space and moves towards the series of interlocking galleries that issue from the central hub of the courtyard, the focus shifts from outside to inside. This neat conceit establishes the splendid outdoor surroundings of an elite dwelling that then opens into a series of more intimate, but lavishly furnished interior spaces. Objects, in other words, are seen within spaces that suggest their possible function and this framing continues throughout the galleries.

Another striking feature of the new galleries is an explicit emphasis on the international character of material display in the European Middle Ages and Renaissance. French and Italian sculptures are displayed side by side with English floor tombs; German stained glass shares a gallery with Burgundian carvings, and Italian medals rub shoulders with Spanish works. Everywhere one is invited to look and to reflect on how these objects might relate to each other, with enough information and yet little intrusion. The display is themed and by type of object, not chronology, and celebrates the cultural diversity of  Medieval and Renaissance Europe. The galleries’ emphasis on materials and makers  permits a fresh look at the richly diverse range of objects, yet succeeds in making these objects accessible. It also challenges any sense of a hierarchical order or value:  a teaspoon might sit quite nicely with some splendidly gilded armour. The galleries invite the viewer to ‘look again’.

At this point, it may be interesting to take a couple of steps away from the seductive and evocative surroundings of the new galleries, and to reflect just briefly on what sort of vision of the Medieval and the Renaissance periods the Victoria & Albert Museum is presenting to the visitors to its galleries. The museum’s vision for the display of its unrivalled holdings of objects spanning centuries of Western European culture, and ranging widely across many centres of art, imposes a narrative on these objects, whether the viewer is aware of it or not. Gone are objects displayed in neutral glass cases, nestling side by side and vying for attention, with little guidance to the non-specialist viewer as regards the ‘significance’ and ‘meaning’ of individual pieces. What we are presented with instead is a series of pathways, each taking the viewer on a thematic journey that gives the objects a context, even, where possible within the constraints of a gallery setting, recreating an approximation to a ‘period eye view’: that is, a sense of seeing these objects as contemporary Medieval and Renaissance beholders might have seen them. The contexts created span geographical boundaries, and raise questions with regard to just what it is that captures our twenty-first-century fascination with the ‘Middle Ages’ and the ‘Renaissance’. We see objects that are both rich in substance, crafted by outstanding craftsmen from the most lavish materials, literally encrusted with gems. Yet such things might be displayed cheek by jowl to a roughly carved, cracked, plain and unassuming ‘thing’, which on closer inspection turns out to be as ‘important’ than the jewelled masterpiece next to it. The displays make the objects meaningful, bringing them to life. Ultimately, what is celebrated is the rich material expression of ‘culture’ and ‘the arts’, and just the sheer pleasure of something beautiful, which can be experienced first hand.

This philosophy carries through into the flurry of publications that accompanied the opening of these galleries. In the first instance, these have been written and researched by the curators of the various departments, and are, without exception, illustrated with the most glorious new photographs of the restored, redisplayed and carefully prepared objects in all their colour and sumptuousness. All these books are accessible and informative, aiming to introduce a new generation of viewers to the marvels of the collection.

Clearly, the V&A’s rich holdings of objects make the publication of a comprehensive catalogue impractical, maybe even impossible. Instead, a series of books has been conceived, ranging from Glynn Davies and Kirstin Kennedy’s substantial introduction to the holdings, Medieval and Renaissance Art: People and Possessions, to slimmer, more narrowly focused publications on such topics as medicine, food, jewellery, fashion and armour (see box). The books complement each other and yet work individually; they share some design features (such as particularly nice endpapers) and yet come in different shapes and formats. Like the galleries, the books facilitate a personal journey around the collection and, like the galleries, their seductive, opulent exteriors well reward a closer engagement with what is inside, appealing to both the art lover and the specialist.